Weather

dianefairhall said:
We had a gorgeous sunny day Thursday, then back to overcast and showers since. Really more like September than July.
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All week here, it was like November. Dark, wet and with a nasty chilly wind.

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Well the forecast unbearable temps never arrived, although it was still in the 30s and we had wind and a small thunder and lightning thing instead. This morning the sun didn't really get out till now, so I have taken the rare opportunity to go and tie up all my tomato plants and do some garden chores in the shade.

When it is very hot, a lot of window/blind/curtain management goes on - a heavy interlined curtain is definitely a bonus. We don't have aircon or shutters, the latter would make a difference but there is a cost factor with 17 windows as much of the house is dual aspect. Anyway, we manage and you do get used to it. We don't really think its hot till its over 30, up to 34 is very bearable with caution, 35-40 is a bit unpleasant so you don't do much and over 40 is a case of lying very low and waiting to get out the other side! Luckily we only have that a couple of days a year. Its a very dry heat, and older houses are built to withstand it with thick stone walls and smallish windows, many Northern Europeans find them dark, but its for a very good reason and I am totally thankful for it. I presume its why some houses (but not many round here) are built with a solar. This is a bit like a conservatory, a room with a lot of glass, but its part of the house, usually on the first floor - as animals and storage were on the ground floor. I see them to the west of the country far more, as it is cooler there, its a way of getting some sun in the more gloomy and wet months (we get a lot of rain). Instead of the solar many houses around here have a terrace on the first floor, a bit like a Spanish solarium. However, I have never seen anybody on them, its just too hot. I think solars used to be part of posh medieval houses as well, in England.

I have just cut some large sprays of bourgainvillea and some long stalks of agapanthus for the house, I have to say I love this time of year when these 2 plants, plus the oleander, are in full bloom and rather greedily we can see how the olives and the grapes are doing as the fruit is formed and starts to swell.
 
Last word on the subject, I have just looked at this week and we are forecast between 36 and 40 every day! Looking at the coast, which is 2 hours away, one place has our scorchio temps, but another resort, maybe 30 mins away from it, is down in the low 20s. I think we may have a day out!
 
That is grim, Mrs Biscuit. If it's cold, at least we can wrap up warm. But in heat like that, there's not a lot to be done.

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This Lightning Map is fun, especially if you turn on the sound options, top right. Daughter texted about a huge thunderstorm in Dorset so now we can follow it as it drifts towards us.

https://lmaps.org/#-1.53;51.27;8
 
There was a(nother) weather warning out for here for all day heavy, thundery downpours. It was, indeed, raining when I left for work this morning, so I put on my big raincoat. Every. bloomin. time. By the time I got to work, the rain was easing off, and it's been a lovely sunny day!
 
No lightning but it's pouring with rain and quite chilly. As I'm stuck in front of the computer sorting out documents for my solicitor I've lit the woodburner.
 
Gosh, isn't it weird how weather can be so "localised"? Here, we had no rain at all yesterday evening, although it did get dark a couple of times, and I heard a few rumbles of thunder in the distance.
However, according to my brother and other people, they had never experienced anything like the rain that fell where they were, maybe 8 to 10 miles away! Roads flooded very quickly, because the drains couldn't cope with the volume of water. Seems like it rained a bit overnight, and it's gone quite cool, with temps having dropped to about 12C. It's threatening to rain again now, but I think I'm going for a walk this morning anyway. I mean, the worst thing that can happen is that I get wet, right?!
 
LadyA said:
It's threatening to rain again now, but I think I'm going for a walk this morning anyway. I mean, the worst thing that can happen is that I get wet, right?!
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I hope so! (Was that what they were saying in Louisiana lately?)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/27/hurricane-laura-makes-landfall-louisiana-winds-storm-surge

Mixed bag here this weekend.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/27/uk-set-for-more-downpours-ahead-of-coldest-bank-holiday-on-record

Daughter has been in Snowdonia for four days with a group of final-year D.of E. students, coping with flooded camping sites, downpours and thunderstorms. Last year the problem for them was heat exhaustion in record temperatures.
Fewer trippers for them, I hope - Snowdonia was absolutely packed when the sun was shining a week or two ago. But at least our pond is properly full, the first time for ages.
 
Unusually summer continues here. Storm Francis passed by to the south. Sunny days, mild temperatures and record silage yields.
Don’t know whether it’s just a freak occurrence or a portent of global warming. Blue hybrid hens and splash cockerel ambling about. Lambs growing fat on abundant and nutritious grass. Haven’t even thought of moving them to their winter grazing.
Something vaguely surreal about it. I just feel a winter of ferocious storms brewing.
 
I think you may be right about the Winter storms, Hen Gen. We've already had two, very close together, and it's very early for them.

I enjoyed a wonderful day of solitude today! Walk this morning (didn't get wet, although the wind felt distinctly Autumnal, and I was glad of my jacket!) and spent the rest of the day at home. Cleaned out the henhouse and put a good deep layer of fresh coffee chaff in, salvaged the remaining green beans for the freezer and spent some time cleaning and tidying a kitchen drawer and a cupboard. I haven't had dinner yet, for some reason I'm not very hungry.

Tomorrow, I will go visit mum again, and take her some meals. I've a nice big lamb stew in the slow cooker. And I have some courgettes to use, so I might make muffins.
 
Courgette Muffins! I’ll take your word for it.
Now on the question of food. On Wednesday I bought a punnet of cherries. £3.95 which seems exorbitant to me but they are only available for a short time and I love them.
Glossy and black, huge and juicy. Only one complaint. Absolutely no taste whatsoever. I could have been eating anything. My mind flew back 40 years to Cherry Clafoutis. How I loved them!
 
We have some wild cherry plants growing near us, the taste is lovely although the cherries are small, nothing like the bland supermarket ones.
Cold here with a northerly wind, but in the last two weeks only half an hours rain, the fish are requesting walking poles to get about, and the geese look more like waders
 
My local, family owned supermarket sources strawberries, raspberries and cherries locally. The cherries all come from the same farm in Herefordshire but the variety changes over the weeks and the taste with the weather, but they are always lovely. They usually sell then in 1Kg boxes as well as smaller punnets but not this year. Whether it was reduced crop or lack of pickers I don't know.
It's so cold here I'm seriously thinking of turning the central heating on. We've had quite a lot of rain but the wind is drying everything again.
 
Was certainly colder here today, enough to warrant a jacket, but not seriously cold.
BYM, today, it didn't rain (yet). Got cloudy and dark several times, but it blew off again. We're told it may not rain tomorrow either. Not sure we'll be able for two days in a row without it raining for hours! They'll probably announce a hosepipe ban! However, we don't need to panic, because we are promised "very wet" conditions from Monday!
 
I feel vindicated having turned on the central heating on Saturday. It's been below 5 degrees at night and apparently colder than it was at Christmas!
It's supposed to warm up a bit this week ...
 
Glorious day here today! Warm, but not too warm, bright and sunny! (So far!)

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